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How do honey ants use replete workers to store food?
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Hymenoptera
An endangered rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) browsing on a wild bergamot flower.
In the order Hymenoptera, certain honey ants utilize a specialized worker caste known as a replete to store food.21
When food is abundant, these workers are fed honeydew—a digestive by-product gathered from aphids or scale insects—by other members of the colony. This consumption causes the replete's abdomen to become significantly distended, often reaching many times its original size.21
Because of their increased size, these ants become immobile and hang from the ceilings of underground nest chambers, effectively serving as living storage vessels. They may remain in this state for months until the colony requires sustenance, at which point the replete regurgitates the stored honeydew in response to stimulation from other ants.21